FT Poker Academy - range of late position raises

I'm considering doing the Chris Ferguson Pre-Flop Play challenge at the full tilt poker Academy, and I have been reading through exactly what has to be done in order to gain those 400 points. I have a question about one of the things that they say when explaining why part of the challenge is to, in late position (cutoff, button, playing 9- or 8-handed), open-raise to exactly 3 times the big blind 3 times with hands other than A-A, K-K, Q-Q, J-J, T-T, A-K, A-Q. This is their reason why:

Particularly on the button, where you only have two players left to beat, you should be raising with a wide variety of hands, including any ace, arguably any king, and most suited connectors. You need to take advantage of your late position and play more pots, in part because if you get called, you'll have position on your opponents for the rest of the hand.

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My question is whether this advice is more tailored towards cash games, and whether it applies in tournaments?

I only currently play tournaments and I only generally play freerolls, so the standards are very low of course, but I quite quickly notice when somebody frequently raises in late position and I try to take advantage of that. Wouldn't following this advice in tournaments (and arguably in cash games too, although I rarely play them) make people respect your raises less and negatively impact your table image?

Also, as a small aside, I generally try to follow Phil Gordon's advice from his Little Green Book on bet sizing, so on the button I would often be raising three and a half times the big blind, not three times.

Thanks in advance for your help!

It works in tourneys too. If you can steal the blinds from the btn with 78s when its folded to you, why not?

Especially if the 2 people to your left are nits. Then you should open your range even further. But if you encounter resistance and your hand is weak/marginal, tread lightly.

Even following that pre-flop guide your still going to be playing fairly tight. (I did it 10X for the points) But opening your preflop range on the btn does make you seem looser at a glance. But you should try it out.

The Dark Side said:

(I did it 10X for the points)

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Does that imply that you can do the same challenge more than once?

You can do every challenge 10x

You'll get a total of 4000 points for this challenge. Very easy to do.

NoWuckingFurries said:

Does that imply that you can do the same challenge more than once?

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Yes you can do each challenge 10 times although it sucks cause no where do they tell you how many times you have done each challenge. If you manage to do once 10 times it will not allow you to accept it again.

I normally have 3-4 challenges open at one time and switch the challenge to what I am playing that day or week... ie cash games sngs or mtts

And it's probably easier to start at the level 2 and 3 challenges and work up to the higher ones and they do add new challenges

Yes, using your position to put pressure on other players is very much a workable tournament tactic, an essential part of the tournament player`s arsenal.

You would not wish to do so every time you are in late position, as that would be transparent and exploitable, but you should be thinking in terms of doing so with a wide range of hands. Personally, I would be apt to make this play with any pair, any ace, King and a reasonable kicker, and suited connectors, very much as described in the passage you quote. If I knew the players acting after me to be weak, I might expand my range still further, and I might also play this way from late-middle position, as well as from late. In other words, from any of the last four seats.

It`s worth bearing in mind that freerolls are generally not a good training environment. Because it costs nothing to enter and they have nothing to lose, players are apt to call much more readily than they would in a buy-in and this distorts the game dynamics.

Egon Towst said:

You would not wish to do so every time you are in late position, as that would be transparent and exploitable

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I'm pretty sure that - when playing deep enough - you can open close to 100% from the BTN and get away with it. It's just soooo hard for people in the blinds to adjust properly. Although if you open 100%, 2.5bb or 2bb may be more appropriate than 3bb.

Obviously you won't get as much fold equity preflop vs observing players as you would with a tighter stealing range, but you end up playing a ton of pots in position with wide ranges for both players, and if that should be immensely profitable post flop.

BelgoSuisse said:

I'm pretty sure that - when playing deep enough - you can open close to 100% from the BTN and get away with it.

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Possibly. It depends on what stakes you are playing and the quality of the opposition. Stronger players will call or re-raise from the blinds and then bet most/all flops with a wide range of hands, whenever they suspect a late-position player of stealing too much. It siezes the initiative back from the stealer.

People who always raise on the button stick out like a sore thumb in tournaments and generally don't last very long, at least from my limited experience.

Imo that Ferguson Challenge gives horrid advice. He has you min raising premiums from EP iirc!

Also if you're not already opening a wider range than you laid out in the OP from LP you're missing out. I don't know about 100% but something like 60% of hands seems about right (obviously more if the players in the blinds are especially weak). TT+/AQ+ is tight from EP, nevermind from the CO/BTN.